Sermon for Trinity Sunday: "Born from Above"

+ Feast of the Holy Trinity – May 27^th, 2018 +

Series B: Isaiah 6:1-8; Acts 2:14, 22-36; John 3:1-17

Redeemer Lutheran, HB

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Whether it’s the birth of your own child, grandchild, or that of family or friends, or your own, there’s something special about one’s birthday. True enough, as we grow older we may be less excited about our birthdays than we were when we were younger; we may move from counting how many presents we received to counting the innumerable blessing the past year has brought. Either way, a birthday is a time of excitement, joy, and above all, life.

Birth and new life is the topic of discussion between Nicodemus and Jesus here in John 3.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Notice how John says Nicodemus came to Jesus “By night.” That’s more than a time stamp. It’s a theological statement. Nicodemus was probably afraid, ashamed, and apprehensive. He was in the dark physically and spiritually, the darkness of unbelief and sin. But at least he came to the right source: to the one who is Light of Light, very God of very of God.

Nicodemus also didn’t come to Jesus for a confrontation. He wasn’t like the other Pharisees, always looking for an angle on Jesus, trying to trap him in his words or hit him with a gotcha question. Nicodemus came to Jesus like a thirsty man in the desert, like a blind man in search of sight.

We’re like Nicodemus you see. We come to Jesus by night too. Afraid. Ashamed. Apprehensive. We try and hide our shame, fear, and guilt. We try and bury our burdens in the dark in hopes of staying invisible, of hiding from God and others. But we can no more hide from our Lord than Adam and Eve could.

The world around us is veiled in darkness too. “This is the condemnation, Jesus declares, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.”

But here’s the shocking, amazing thing. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved through Him. Jesus found Nicodemus that night, and he finds you. Jesus the Light of the world enters the darkness for us. Nighttime and darkness may be full of bad things, but it’s also when God works his greatest for us. YHWH rescuing Israel in the Exodus by night. Jesus’ birth announced to the shepherds watching their fields by night. The Lord’s Supper given on the night in which Jesus was betrayed.

Jesus came to bring Nicodemus, us, and the whole world from dark to light, from death to life, and from our old birth from below in Adam, to a new birth from above in Jesus and the gift of word, water and spirit in your Baptism.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

Maybe you’ve heard that phrase before. “I was born again.” Or, “have you been born again?” I always like to answer, yes. I was born again in Holy Baptism when I was about 2 weeks old. “Born from above” – that’s what the phrase can also mean, and that’s what Jesus is telling us along with Nicodemus. Unless one is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.

In John 1, we’re told the same thing. Jesus came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Safe to say, we’d probably agree with Nicodemus if we were in on this conversation that night too. It all sounds rather odd, doesn’t it?

“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

We have two births according to Jesus. Our first birth is usually in a hospital, where we receive life from our parents. Breathing, growing, muscular movements and all that life entails. Our second birth is in the baptismal font, where we receive life in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Mercy, love, and receiving God’s gifts and all that life in Christ entails. Our first birth is from below, from Adam and it’s a birth that leads to death. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Our second birth is from above, from Christ the second Adam in whom we live; it’s a birth in which we die and rise again in Jesus. In Christ in Baptism you are a new creation. In Christ in Baptism you are born from above. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God. And so we are. We had no more to do with our birth from above in Holy Baptism than we did our first birth from our parents. Both are God’s free gift of life.

We join Nicodemus in wondering, How can these things be?

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Jesus is the center, the One on whom the spotlight is focused. No one has ever seen God, John says, but the only-begotten God, the Word Incarnate, the second Person of the undivided Holy Trinity, He has made God known. If we want to know and see God, we look to the God who came to us as the Son of the Virgin and the Man of the Cross. This is God in terms we can comprehend, who embraces us, who is born and suffers and dies, who is bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.

This is why we have a Trinity Sunday and why we take the time to confess the Athanasian Creed. Jesus is the one who reveals the Father, who sends the Spirit, who declared, “Baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He is the One who said, “No one comes to the Father except by me” and “I will send you another Comforter who will be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth.”

The Father sends the Son to die and rise who sends the Spirit who leads us to the Son who brings us back to the Father. This is what it means to be born of God, born from above, born of the Spirit. The Father is our Father. The Son is our Brother. The Spirit is our Guardian, Guide, and Friend. We are caught up in a mystery that defies our reason and our senses just as Nicodemus was. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is the name you are baptized into, the name that is placed upon you, and the name that gives you a new birth from above.

Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity. Let us give glory to Him because he has shown his mercy to us.

A blessed Trinity Sunday to each of you…

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.